How did the fab five do on their
FAB FIVE HOPED TO DO WELL ON JUNIOR SHOW TIME AND THEY WERE ONLY ONE OF THE ROSSLYN BABES ACTS
They were the fab five from Sunderland and they were about to make their television debuts in August 1971. But who remembers how these Wearside 10 to 13-yearolds did when they appeared on Junior Show Time? If you’ve got the answer, it will be music to our ears. The girls in the picture are Sheila Wyness, 12, Hazel Wilson, 12, Beverley Pattinson, 10, Janet Lovell, 13, and Susan Smith, 11, and they were all members of the Rosslyn Babes. Our story in 1971 explained: “Five Sunderland girls will have the chance to see themselves on television. They will be doing a three-minute song-and-dance routine on Junior Show Time. “Although it will not be the first time children from this troupe have been on television, it will be the first appearance for these girls.” The show was recorded in Leeds in June 1971 and the five girls from Wearside spent two days there while the recording was in progress. But they were in the dark – as our story at the time explained: “None of them have seen the results of their act so they are looking forward to the show as much as all their friends and relations.” To give you an idea of what else was on telly at the time, other highlights included Where The Jobs Are, and The Tuesday Western on ITV; The Flashing Blade, Z Cars, the Andy Williams Show on BBC 1; and Collector’s World on BBC 2. So how did they do? Get in touch and tell us more by emailing chris.cordner@ jpress.co.uk And who remembers some of the other great performances by the Rosslyn Babes down the years? They had been a big part of the Wearside entertainment scene since the late 1940s, all through the 1960s and 1970s and well into the 1980s. It all started for the Babes when they were formed by Sunderland-born Mary Harbord of Rosslyn Street. Their first professional appearance was in Bernard Delfont’s production of Dick Whittington at the Lewisham Hippodrome in 1944. Appearances at theatres in London, Stockport, Barnsley, Harrogate, Margate, Maidstone, Keighley followed as well as at venues in Sunderland, Newcastle and Gateshead. In 1957, they featured in Hop O My Thumb, at the Palace Theatre, Newcastle. And that same year, they were in Cinderella at the Sunderland Empire Theatre.